John Shearer: Old Wann Funeral Home Building In St. Elmo Is Full Of History

A familiar building for those traveling down Lookout Mountain as well as through St. Elmo is the former Wann Funeral Home structure.

For many residents of that part of Chattanooga and beyond, the building at 4000 Tennessee Ave. is well known inside and out. Not only have many people zoomed past it in their daily travels, but it was also a place to stop and receive comfort and service when their own lives were halted due to the death of a loved one.

And many of these deceased were formerly distinguished people on their way to their final resting place.

The historic building – part of which dates to the 1930s – is adding a new chapter as well, as it has been for lease recently. The Florida-based property company, Strategic Sites/Clifford Commercial, has been recently advertising the expansive brick building with adequate parking in the back.

A recent promotion for the property at the company’s website said, “Terrific opportunity for restaurant user. This building is available with outdoor patio space and a blank slate for the restaurant entrepreneur. On-site parking is available. Site is well situated in heart of St Elmo.” The leasing agent was John Jewell.

The exact status on the leasing availability at present could not be determined after a quick check. But a for-lease sign remains in the front, and the building was still empty as of Sunday, with hourly surface parking still available in its parking lot via an app.

Wann Funeral Home and Cremation Center, meanwhile, is now located a few yards north.

A look at the former parlor building’s history shows that Wann Funeral Home began leasing the building in 1964 and by 1965 had completed the addition of a chapel wing on the south end. The new part was designed by Rufus Holt of Selmon T. Franklin Associates, reports said.

This was said to be at a time when funeral homes were beginning to locate away from the heart of downtown Chattanooga.

The structure’s beginning also dealt with paying tribute to someone who had passed, but not via the services of a funeral home. In 1937 the building opened as the James Craig Lodor American Legion Post No. 148 in memory of Lt. Lodor. He was one of the first Chattanoogans to give his life in the World War I effort when he was killed fighting along the Marne River in France in July 1918.

The post was first located beginning in 1922 in a modest lodge clubhouse with an expansive porch on the north side of the Incline Railway. By the time the new clubhouse was opened across the street and closer to Forest Hills Cemetery in 1937, the post had around 85 members.

During that dedication ceremony as the Great Depression continued, state Legion commander Tom Morris spoke. He praised the new facility, telling the members, “You are making history in 1937, just as you did in 1917 and 1918.”

Over the years, members gathered there during happier times for meetings and events as well as during somber times, when they found their younger military comrades having to fight in World War II and Korea.

At the time the American Legion post began leasing the facility to the Wann firm and using a smaller place nearby, Jimmy Wann was running the funeral home. Both his grandfather, J.H. Wann, and father, Paul Wann, had been in the undertaking business but they met premature deaths that perhaps gave the family added compassion for dealing with grief in their business.

James H. Wann, who was only 57, was in a car with his wife, Florence, near Loughman, Florida, in the inland part of the state in March 1919 when a fast-moving roadster passed them and caused an accident. The driver of the other vehicle apparently left the scene before authorities arrived. Mr. Wann’s wife was injured.

In 1928, her son, Paul H. Wann, died from what was believed to be a stroke or aneurysm after not feeling well while being downtown and after deciding to take a room at the Read House to rest. He was only 40 years old and was said to be friendly and compassionate toward people and families needing funeral home services.

His wife, Ethel Creekmore Wann, then ran the business as a pioneering woman entrepreneur before sons James C. “Jimmy” and Paul H. Wann Jr. helped take it over. Jimmy Wann was president when the St. Elmo site began being used.

Wann Funeral Home had started around the turn of the 20^th century when the elder J.H. Wann took over the Sharp Funeral Home after being located closer to the Georgia line. Later mergers and moves resulted in them being at 541 McCallie Ave. about the time of World War II.

A newspaper caption below a 1937 photograph of the firm said it had a fleet of 12 Cadillacs and Packards for use.

In the late 1950s, they moved into the former Central Baptist Church facility near McCallie Avenue and Palmetto Street before later securing the additional St. Elmo site.

Jimmy Wann – the father of Broadway musical actor Jimmy Wann and former Chattanooga Times journalist Libby Wann Duff – sold the business to John Hargis in 1972 but stayed involved with the funeral home for a number of years before his death in 1984.

Cade and Shawn Williamson of the former Williamson Funeral Home family in Soddy-Daisy, and who also operated Legacy Funeral Home, purchased the building in 2013 before closing and selling it in 2020, old news reports say.

At the time the firm was looking for another location, and it is now just a little north at 3918 Tennessee Ave.

And now the old building – which has a marker on its grounds honoring World War I soldiers -- sits waiting on a new tenant, possibly a restaurant, which might be a more casual type of businesss than being a mortuary. And perhaps a light play on the building’s past use could be included in a restaurant name, such as calling it Doughboy’s Doughnuts, Death by Chocolate, the Die-Ner, the Crematory Creamery, the Chicken Casket Basket, etc.

Regardless, the building that first was a home for military veterans who served their country has attractively stood like a proud brick sentinel on a slightly elevated spot at the foot of Lookout Mountain for decades.

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net